At Julien’s Auctions this November, the late Florian Schneider, co-founder of Kraftwerk and quiet architect of electronic modernity, will once again speak through his collection of machines. Nearly 500 of Schneider’s personal effects, from instruments to memorabilia, will go under the hammer at the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville—a sale that reads like an inventory of twentieth-century futurism. Among the relics: vocoders that gave him his robotic voice, the suitcase synthesiser that turned his flute into a machine, his gold-rimmed sunglasses, and the bicycle he rode through Kraftwerk’s Tour de France video.
Schneider, who died in 2020 at seventy-three, left behind more than instruments; he left behind an idea that human expression could be found in repetition and electricity. The collection’s estimated value, between $450,000 and $650,000, feels modest beside the weight of its influence. Kraftwerk’s synthetic hum became the pulse of the future, running through Bowie’s Berlin, Joy Division’s Manchester, and the gleaming grids of hip-hop in the Boogie Down Bronx.
“They were one of the first bands that used synthesisers and they created music that no one had ever heard of before,” says Giles Moon, head of music at Julien’s. “It was very unworldly, and it moved music forward in a way nobody had ever seen, in a totally different direction that most people probably didn’t think was even possible.” The astonishment still lingers. “Other bands found their tracks mind-blowing,” he adds. “They suddenly discovered this new pathway in music that Kraftwerk created. It inspired a lot of bands to move in the direction of using synthesised electronic music.”
Schneider’s estate describes the auction as an act of renewal. “He always believed that (his instruments) are meant to be played and shared – not left unused or gathering dust in storage,” a spokesperson said. “He wanted his equipment to find their way to people who would truly value them: musicians, collectors and those inspired by the art of sound.”
The star of the auction is the vocoder believed to have shaped The Man-Machine and Computer World, expected to fetch up to $50,000. The EMS Synthi AKS, a portable laboratory of bleeps and voltage used on Autobahn, carries an estimate of $15,000 to $20,000.
“It’s a very early synthesiser, in the form of a suitcase, so it’s quite unusual,” Moon explains. “It’s the first synthesiser they acquired in the early 1970s when Florian decided to stop using classical instruments. He would attach it to his flute and use it to process these amazing sounds.”
That flute, an Orsi G alto valued at $8,000 to $10,000, once bridged the analog and the synthetic. “There’s footage of Kraftwerk playing in what’s widely called the first techno concert,” Moon recalls. “Very uncharacteristic sounds come out of the flute… it is quite remarkable to see the reaction of the crowd, because this was the first time that most people had heard this type of music.”
For more information on The Florian Scheidner Collection, check out the listings at Julien’s Auctions here, and watch the promo below.
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